People living in sprawling areas tend to drive longer distances, own more cars, breathe more polluted air, walk and use public transportation less, and face a greater risk of dying in traffic accidents than those who live in nonsprawling areas, according to a three-year project conducted at Rutgers and Cornell Universities and the nonprofit, Smart Growth America. In order to measure urban sprawl, the researchers created a sprawl index based on four factors—residential density; neighborhood mix of homes, jobs, and services; strength of activity centers and downtowns; and accessibility to the street network. Metropolitan areas in the United States earned a score in each of the four categories, and the scores were combined to calculate the overall score for each area. According to these scores, the most sprawling area in the United Sates is Riverside, Calif., and the least sprawling area is New York City. To see how your area ranks in terms of sprawl, go to www.smartgrowthamerica.org and download a copy of the report, Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact.